Popadija – Volušnica Lollipop

This hike, undemanding and incredibly scenic, can be a perfect warm-up for more challenging trails in the area around the town of Gusinje/Gucia. From the trailhead at the gate to the national park in the Grbaja/Grebaje Valley up to the treeline, it is a there-and-back hike. Above the treeline (lowered by man to less than 1640m here) it is a loop via the summits around Volušnica/Valušnica pasture/valley. The hike offers picturesque panoramic vistas towards the Brada-Karanfili Ridge in Montenegro and the Shkurt (Madhe-Shkurt-Lagojvet) Group within the confines of Albania. (The former is actually the northeast extension of the latter.)

Route statistics

Distance: nearly 10 km

Total elevation gain: about 1,000 m

Time: about 5 h

Despite the area lying within the confines of Montenegro, the local population is composed mostly of Bosniaks and Albanians. The language spoken by the Bosniaks is similar to Montenegrin/Serbian but has been influenced by Albanian. Therefore, there are often two or three versions of a place name, for instance Dolina (Valley) Grbaja/Grebaje/Gerbajë. Another example is the name of the mountain which towers over the trailhead for the hike this page is concerned with. Its Albanian name is Maja (Peak) Can, the Montenegrin is Volušnica, so I guess the name Valušnica that appears on the newer maps will be Bosniak. (I suppose Volušnica stems from vol, which is a Slavic word for an ox.)

In these mountains there are still some nameless peaks and quite a few objects whose name has not yet been decided. I bet that before they started to be used as names of mountain peaks, Volušnica and Popadija were the names of the pastures at nearby valley heads. Later on the name Popadija stuck also to the two highest peaks, exceeding 2,000m in elevation, on the ridge enclosing the pasture of Volušnica. The north one, whose eastern ridge forms the border between the pastures of Popadija and Volušnica has retained its name whereas the other, located further to the south, is now usually referred to as Talijanka.

The trailhead is at the gate to the national park, where there are also a restaurant and a small car park. The mountain towering over this place is known as Volušnica/Maja Can.

The first part of the hike is a walk-up through beech woodland. The trail is marked with red and white paint, and the marks – along the same trail(!) – can be either stripes or dots. 

When you come out of the forest into the mountain pasture (still grazed by sheep), the path forks. If you turn left and cross the brook, you will be following the marks to soon reach the summits of Volušnica/Maja Can. 

But we thought it would be better for the views to carry on up the same side of the stream and take the other path, well-defined although marked less often (unmarked on the paper and online maps we had), leading to the pass called Ćafa Volušnici or just Ćafa (1874m), which connects the pastures of Volušnica and Popadija.

As you walk up this path, the jagged ridge of the Karanfili begins to show off on your left.

When you have reached Ćafa,

you will have a view along the main ridge towards Veliki Trojan (Veliki vrh) at 2190m, the highest and most massive mountain in the Trojan-Popadija Group.

At Ćafa you pick the red-and-white marks again to quickly climb the east shoulder of Popadija, whose summit sits on the main ridge of the group as well as the Montenegro-Albania border.

From the summit of Popadija (2030m) the designated path begins to follow the crest of the ridge, first dipping below the 2000m, then ascending Talijanka/Maja e Vajushës (2057m), which is – just like Popadija – composed of slate (metamorphic rock).

Such geologic make-up is reflected in the shape of the mountains, different from their calcareous, i.e. limestone or dolomite, surroundings.

Talijanka along with the ridge it sends to the east marks the south reaches of the Trojan-Popadija Group. This ridge towers over the uppermost part of the Grbaja/Grebaje Valley and commands the fabulous views of the Karanfili which attracts so many hikers. In fact, the magnificent rocky wall on the other side of the valley comprises not only the whole Brada-Karanfili Ridge in Montenegro, but also the main chunk of the Shkurt (Madhe-Shkurt-Lagojvet) Group within the confines of Albania. 

The trail descends Talijanka and follows the crest of the ridge.

Apart from the picturesque views of Karanfili,

on your left you can see Karaula (Watchtower, 1915m), sitting northeast of the pasture of Volušnica.

After a few hundred metres the rock under your feet changes back to limestone. There are two distinct limestone summits ahead, whose elevations seem to be more or less the same. The Montenegrin name of this limestone massif is Volušnica, after the adjacent pasture, whereas the Albanian name is Maja Can.   

On the cliffs falling into the Grbaja Valley grow picturesque pine trees.

The last summit the waymarked trail climbs is the eastern of the two highest summits of Volušnica. According to most of the available sources, its elevation is 1879m. 

The summit gives you another excellent view of Karanfili.

Soon after the summit the trail turns left, passes by some well-developed karst features,

and gets to the starting point of the loop at the edge of the forest. The final half hour of the hike is a descent through the forest to the trailhead, retracing your steps from the first part of the hike. 

As for the paper maps, from the park ranger at the entrance to the national park we bought a 1:50,000 map entitled Prokletije planinarenje i biciklizam, made by Kartografija Huber doo (year not given). The map shows the trails in the area very well despite the information on the back (especially on the red tape) being outdated.